Despite its nod to
Devo's 1978 classic,
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' eighth album,
Are We Not Men? We are Diva!, is not collection of new wave covers by the red-hatted ones or any other of their ilk. Instead, the SoCal theme punks have turned their affection to pop's greatest female divas from
Celine Dion to
Lady Gaga and beyond. The six-year gap between this album and 2008's
Have Another Ball!, which was essentially a companion piece to their 1997 debut, has not softened their sound or dimmed their flame. They hit the ground running with a ripping version of
Gloria Gaynor's iconic "I Will Survive" that contains all the pop punk flair that they've successfully applied to country, folk, and classic pop tunes throughout their career. Re-imaginings of
Cher's "Believe" (complete with Auto-Tune),
the Carpenters' "Top of the World," and even
Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" follow, proving that even male divas aren't safe from
the Gimmes' treatment. The collection ends with a rave-up of one of diva-dom's greatest ballads,
Barbara Streisand's "The Way We Were." ~ Timothy Monger